Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON: The United States (US) is tracking a suspected Chinese balloon that has been spotted hovering over sensitive sites in the country.
Pentagon officials said that they were confident the “high-altitude surveillance balloon” belonged to China. It was recently seen above the western state of Montana.
But the US army has decided not to shooting down the baloon as there were concerns over the danger of falling debris. China is yet to comment on the issue.
US President Joe Biden had been briefed on the situation.
Officials said that the object flew over Alaska’s Aleutian Islands and through Canada before appearing Billings in Montana on Wednesday.
A senior defense official speaking on anonymity said that the government prepared jets, including jet F-22s, in case the White House issues orders the object to be shot down.
US defence secretary’s stance on the balloon
Top army leaders, including Lloyd Austin, Defense Secretary, and General Mark Milley, US chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, met Wednesday to assess the threat. Austin had travelled in the Philippines at the time.
But they have advised against taking “kinetic action” against a balloon because of the danger falling debris could pose to people on the ground.
Montana, a sparsely populated western state, is house to one of only three nuclear missile silo fields in the US. Malmstrom Air Force Base, officials said that the apparent spycraft is flying over sensitive sites to collect information.
The defense official said that no “importantly enhanced threat” of United States intelligence was being compromised because American officials “know exactly where that balloon is and exactly where it’s passing over”.
He said that there was also no threat to civilian aviation as the balloon was “importantly” above the altitude used by commercial airlines.
The defense official said that the US had raised the issue with Chinese officials in their embassy in Washington DC and China.
During the Thursday’s briefing at the Pentagon, officials declined to disclose the aircraft’s current location. They refused to provide more details about the object, including its size.
“There have been reports of pilots seeing that thing even though it’s pretty high up in the sky,” the unnamed defense official said. “So, you know, it’s sizable.”
